Memory test Tuesday

I'm back home now from my busy day. I'm pooped. I got to mom's at 9am and got her laundry started. Of course she totally forgot I told her last night I was coming and taking her to her annual check up. Got things thrown in her garbage can, like the old balloon almost deflated and the dead flowers ddh sent. (Then I took it down and emptied it in the big laundry room garbage can, so she wouldn't take anything back out later). She still thought the flowers were "ok". No, they were done and dried out by now. Then I suggested she take a shower since she was going to the doctor for a check up and she was agreeable. Honestly, hard to say how long it's been. (she now thinks washing off with a wash cloth is good enough most days). I'm just going to keep trying to suggest it when I go visit. I have read that this is super common among those with dementia. When she got out of the shower she asked if I could help clip her toenails. OMG....it had certainly been quite awhile since she has done that! Something else to start checking on every so often now, too. When she was combing her hair she showed me a little bump on her forehead, near her hairline so I said we'd have the dr. look at it.

She got dressed while I went and got the clothes out of the dryer and it was time to go to her appointment, not more than a 10 minute drive from her place. The nurse did the same little memory test as last year. Again, she couldn't recall the 3 words and I'd say her clock drawing was worse than last year. It wasn't even a circle this time. Then the dr. came in and decided to do the longer cognitive test, if we were ok with that. The one on paper and the dr gives instructions for each section, or ask questions. Mostly all of it was failed. The only parts she was able to do was tap her hand whenever the doctor said the letter A while randomly saying out letters. She also could repeat back to her a sentence she just said to her. She did that with 2 different sentences, the second one a little longer and she got that correct too. She didn't know the date, year, day of the week (she guessed Monday) or what city we were in. She didn't know any of the 3 animals on the page, etc. You could tell mom was getting anxiety from it - and a little bit teary eyed when she kept having to say she didn't know. It was sad.

The doctor is a sweet lady and you can tell she's trying to be as sweet at tactful with mom as possible, but she did tell her her memory is not good at all and worse than last year. Mom was like "oh dear. what can I do about it?" then mom asked me if I have noticed it.....well...ya....I told mom she repeats a lot of questions because she can't remember.  The doctor suggestws to try the Alzheimer's medication Aricept. I have read about this. It seems to help some people, but not a lot of people. It helps to slow the progression of it down some, for a time. But, I guess if it works, that would be helpful, so we are going to give it a try. It's taken in the evenings (Thank God, so I can add it to her already evening pills). The dr is ordering her refills through the mail order pharmacy we use and also adding the Aricept, so I should have that and her refills to take to mom next week. Hopefully she doesn't have bad side effects from it. Some do. Seems like it's maybe a 50/50 if it will help any or not. But, if it can hold her off like she is right now, she may be able to stay living where she is for a little longer. Only time will tell. Then if she's doing ok on the medication, we go back in 2 months and she can up the dosage, too.

She also suggested and will give a referral to a neurologist. More tests, but she said it's totally up to me if I want her to do it. It's not like they can do anything about it. But, some people just seem to want a confirmed diagnosis and some need a diagnosis for legal reasons/guardianship etc. She said mostly it would give me more info about the disease, but I said I have already done quite a bit of reading on it. I'm not really sure it's worthwhile to do it. We already know she has dementia/Alzheimer's.

The doctor also said she could/should remove the little bump (she will send it in for screening) just to be on the safe side and thankfully she could do it during this visit.  She also said it was ok to go ahead and do her blood draw, so again, thankful I don't have to take her in another day at 8am, after not eating, to have it done. We were there an hour, but got everything taken care of, so that was good.

I was feeling bad for mom, but then I had to tell myself, in a few hours or so she's totally going to forget she was even at the doctor's office today. By the time we got home and I was helping remove the little bandaid they had put on her forehead, she had already forgotten what it was for/what the doctor did.

We were at the dr longer than I anticipated so it was like 12:20 and we were hungry but did a quick stop in Walgreens for cookies, granola bars and chocolate for her to have on hand in her apartment for snacks. Then we did the Arby's drive through. I figured she was tired and to have to sit in the restaurant would add to it, so we just took it back to her apartment and ate. That way (I eat faster, LOL) I could get her clean clothes put away while she was still finishing up her lunch.

Now I need a nap. And Walmart didn't give me any bread! Apparently they were out. GRRR. So now I have only like 1 left in my freezer. UGH. We have to run to town tomorrow morning, so I guess I will have to stop in our town store and hope they have the bread we like. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't.

The young man who brought my grocery order out was the absolute sweetest nicest young man. I need to find out if there is a way to leave some feedback about him.